Aug 20 Box Office Predictions - Kubo and the Two Strings, War Dogs and Ben Hur

Sorry I'm a little late this time, been on a vacation and it's been hard to get around to everything. Nevertheless, if you all are still interested, here are my predictions for this week. If you keep up on this sort of thing you've probably seen all of the forecasts, but I'd like to cast my line out all the same.

Kubo and the Two StringsPrediction: $17 million

First up we have the latest from Laika Studios, you know, pretty much the only guys left churning out high-quality stop-motion pictures that still have a significant budget behind them. Their latest offering is Kubo and the Two Strings which I had the immense pleasure of viewing today. Laika's films never tend to do break-out business, but they still make a bit of money. I'm gonna peg Kubo as the winner of the three wide releases this weekend, and I think it'll ring up around $17 million. Here's hoping this film holds up exceptionally well; it's easily my favorite movie of the year so far, and it's important that it performs if we want to see creative endeavors like this continue to be made. Otherwise we'll have to settle for Sing 1, 2, 3 and 4. *click-click-BANG*

War DogsPrediction: $15 million

The latest from Todd Phillips looks to be a welcome departure from the dried-up Hangover franchise as it sees two wanna-be arms dealers in the from of Jonah Hill and Miles Teller trying to survive in Iraq. Jonah Hill seems to have developed a bit of a following, and Todd Phillips has churned out some huge comedic hits in the past, so I feel like this will do at least in the mid-teens, maybe more if it's actually good. My prediction for War Dogs is $15 million.

Ben HurPrediction: $15 million

Despite how much this film is getting raked over the coals and how poorly it seems to be registering with the online community, I still think it will make a bit of money on name alone. Of course if people don't respond to it, it will drop like a rock over the week, but I expect it does similar business to The Hunstman did earlier this year. Like War Dogs, I'm also pegging Ben Hur at $15 million.

So there you have it, my late, late, late predictions. Again, I apologize, and will try to avoid posting it so late next week. Catch me Monday for the box office results!